A century ago, the Olympic Games were for most of the world a long-dead and obscure part of an ancient Greek festival. The fact that the Olympics today are so well known is due to the tireless efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who announced in 1892 his curious idea to revive a pagan festival that had not been celebrated for 15 centuries. De Coubertin's efforts were clearly successful, although the idea took some time before it caught the world's attention fully. The modern Olympics, however, were not an exact recreation of those in antiquity. The first Olympic "Games" believed to have been held in 776 BC were nothing more than a single foot race along the Alpheios River near the sanctuary for the god Zeus at Olympia. This footrace was merely an aside in an extended multi-day festival honoring Zeus, the King of the Gods. As at all such festivals in antiquity, there were numerous diversions, such as animal sacrifices, dances, songs, stories and athletic displays, all for the entertainment of the festival-goers and the attendant gods. As time wore on, more athletic events were added to the program. The week-long Olympic Games in the 5th century opened on the first day with the most pompous event, the chariot race, which was followed by a horserace with the jockeys riding bareback (without stirrups). Both of these equestrian events were a way for wealthy people to participate in the Games without undergoing the ordeals of an athlete. And since the charioteers and jockeys were mere hirelings, the owner of the horses was always considered the victor. Even women, who otherwise were not allowed to participate in or even watch the Olympic Games, could sponsor chariots to compete on their behalf, as did the daughter of King Aigisilaos of Sparta, Kyniska, a two-time Olympic victor in 396 and 392 BC.

The events of the festival continued with the pentathlon, which included discus and javelin throwing, a standing long jump, running and wrestling. The running events of the first Olympic Games were expanded beyond the stadium race of around 200 m to include a double stadium of 400 m and a long-distance run. The body con-tact sports, like wrestling and boxing, were gruesome and at times even lethal. The boxers fol-lowed only a few rules and wore simple protection for their hands. The pankra-tion, a vicious form of wrestling with only one ruleÑ no eye-gouging was a contest still more bloody than boxing. The last event was the 400-m race in armor, with contestants carrying a shield and wearing a helmet and greaves. This was one non-equestrian contest where the participants were at least partly clothed, as almost every other event took place in the nude. The Games at Olympia were a Panhellenic festival open to contestants from all of Greece. Panhellenic Games multiplied in the 6th century BC, as local festivals honoring various deities began to attract participants from all over the Greek-speaking world, and began to add athletic contests to their own festival programs. Some of these local contests attract-ed greater esteem than others; by the 5th century four major Games were considered the most prestigious: the Isthmian Games honoring Poseidon, the Nemean Games for Zeus, the Pythian Games at Delphi for Apollo and, still the pinnacle of all the Panhellenic competitions, the Olympic Games at Olympia. The game circuit for the "big four" was so arranged that one set of Games took place every year; on this cycle an Olympiad was every four years, an Olympic cycle replicated today. The Games in antiquity continued for a thousand years. But as Christianity began to spread across the eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, pagan fes-tivals like the Olympics were not as cherished as they once had been. Whether by edict, like that of Theodosius I in 393 ordering all pagan cults and centers closed, or simply a lack of interest, the ancient Games faded away.

The modern reincarnation of the Olympic Games was the brainchild of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French noble-man who sought to invigorate the young men of France with a healthy dose of athletic exercise and competition, which was all but lacking in their curriculum. Inspired in part by the role that sports played in British and American education, de Coubertin spent time in both England and the United States touring schools and attending sport matches, convinced that such competitions encouraged clean living, courageous actions, physical proficiency, men-tal agility, and good sportsmanship. Around this time, the German-led archaeological excavations at the site of Olympia in Greece aroused considerable interest in the ancient Games in educated circles; de Coubertin's imagina-tion was lit by the idea of a cultural, religious, and athletic festival so magnificent and so glorious that it would stimu-late the youth, not only of France but of all the world, to higher ideals. In 1892, he announced in Paris that the first modern Olympiad would commence in four years. The Baron's tenacity in promoting this idea saw success in Athens in 1896, when the first Olympic Games since antiquity opened to great local fanfare (although few others in the world paid attention). Although the Games in Athens in 1896 were a success, it took several decades before the Games settled into a familiar and widely accepted routine. It was during the next 40 years that the Games attained the stature and world-wide acclaim for which we know them today. While the Athenian Games of 1896 were the first Olympics to be held in the modern era, it was in fact the Games of 1936, held in Berlin, that have rightly been called the first truly modern Olympics, in the sense that these Games achieved for the first time the outlandish opulence that we have come to expect from the spectacle. Moreover, the 1936 Games were the first to be broad-cast on a primitive form of television.

Olympiad IV, London, 1908

Once again, the future of the modern Games seemed to hang in the balance; failure in Stockholm would seal the fate of de Coubertin's Olympic vision. But the Swedes were determined to make the Games of the Vth Olympiad the best yet, and they succeeded. A national lottery was held to raise the growing sums needed to host the Olympics, which meant that new stadi-ums and extensive entertainment programs were de rigueur. To de Coubertinís pleasure, the Swedes also extended the program to include competitions in the fine arts. In stark contrast to the gloom of the London Games, those of 1912 were described as a prolonged love fest, which no doubt helped the Olympic move-ment to survive the long interruption caused by the First World War. For the first time in Olympic history, modern or ancient, the Games were cancelled on account of war; the Games of the VIth Olympiad, 1916, had been scheduled to be held in Berlin.

Once the smoke of battle had cleared following the Armistice of 1918, there was talk already of resuming the Olympics. Antwerp was awarded the Games, partly in recognition for what the Belgians had suffered during the war. Given only a year's notice to prepare for the Games, the city did the best it could, despite the fact that Belgium had been devastat-ed by bombs and trench warfare. The results of the Belgian initiative were well received, and the Games once again helped to encourage international cordiality, although Germany and the other Central Powers were deliberately excluded.

With the world plunged into the Great Depression, the prospects for the Los Angeles Games did not seem rosy. When the Games opened, however, those attending found to their delight that more effort and money went into the preparation of the Games than ever before: over three million dollars had been raised for the Games, a princely sum at the time, especially in light of the country's financial woes. The impressive cash flow ensured that the first US Olympics in nearly 30 years would be a showcase of American hospitality, ingenuity, and national goodwill. As today, well-conceived and well-presented Games could give a city and country international distinction of the highest order. While some earlier host cities had been roundly applauded for their efforts, none had yet attained the spectacular levels of Los Angeles' preparations. The quality of the equipment the Americans provided and the massive proportions of the Coliseum Olympic stadium astounded the world, as did the 321-acre Olympic Village, complete with its own post office, movie theater, and cooks from every nation.

Baron de Coubertin did not live to see the XIIth Olympiad, nor did he live to see the Games of that Olympiad cancelled because of Hitler's Blitzkrieg. By the time he died in 1939, the Olympic Movement had become so well rooted in the modern psyche that it would take far more than another World War to disrupt permanently the modern Olympic cycle. After the Second World War, the Games quickly resumed; London, once again, was the host in 1948. Since their rebirth, the modern Games have endeav-ored to adhere to de Coubertin's ideal, but in many ways they have grown beyond it. In little over a century the Olympics have become, as John MacAloon has remarked, "a crucible of symbolic force into which the world pours its energies, and a stage upon which it plays out its hopes and terrors, every four years." If we bear in mind the universal symbol-ic force of the Games in ancient times, the significance of these Greek Games has indeed come full circle. n the summer of 2004, the Olympic Games return to Athens, Greece, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896, 1, 500 years after their ancient namesake had faded from view. Significantly, it is the land that nourished both the birth and rebirth of the Olympic festival that welcomes the first summer Games of the 21st century, a new era in the history of the spectacle. Although the modern Games share little besides their name and Greek origins with their ancient counter-parts, still, a line of continuity can be traced through the symbolic importance that the Games have provided competitors and audi-ences through the centuries.